


Halbjahr in Berlin

by Daegaer



Category: Weiß Kreuz
Genre: Assassins & Hitmen, Film Noir, Gen, Historical, Psychic Abilities, Weimar Germany
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-10
Updated: 2010-02-10
Packaged: 2017-12-09 00:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/767699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/764460">Für Immer Verloren</a>. Schuldig in Berlin, January-July 1933. Six drabbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Halbjahr in Berlin

 

_30\. Januar_

 

So, Schuldig thinks, that's that. He folds the paper neatly and rests his head in his hand, watching the smoke spiral up from his cigarette. The new Chancellor does not smoke, does not eat elaborate meals and his sense of the theatrical matches Schuldig's in no way at all. Berlin will be no place for a man like Schuldig soon.

He should go to London and Crawford, he thinks. It's foolish to be so attached to a place. He has no politics, what does any of this matter to him?

He thinks of the anti-tobacco rhetoric, and lights another cigarette.

 

* * *

 

_27\. Februar_

 

Orders, Schuldig thinks, are orders. That he still _gets_ orders is comforting in a way, telling him he has not yet been denounced to Eszett.

He looks at the Reichstag Building plans again. The petrol-soaked rags are all properly placed now, it will light up like a Christmas tree once he's done. He moves quickly back along his path, dropping lighted matches. Safely outside, he looks back, thinking of when he was there with Crawford. It's a shame to destroy such a fine building. Flames leap from the windows; Schuldig leaves before the authorities arrive.

Orders, he thinks, are orders.

 

* * *

 

_23\. März_

 

The rain starts; Schuldig takes refuge in the new Hohenzollernplatz church to read about the new Act. Sources say the church architect is an NSDAP man, but this building tells a different story. It soars, light and airy, stone ribs like a ship's skeleton. It's nothing like the stolid, approved architecture of the new regime.

A workman stares upwards. _Herr Klarwein should have seen this_ , he thinks.

Schuldig rummages through his mind; Klarwein was the chief designer, his plans credited to a suitable Aryan. An NSDAP trick indeed, worthy of the last few days.

The building tells its own truth.

 

* * *

 

_1\. April_

 

Schuldig reaches one of his favourite cafés, noting how quiet the street seems. He should mock himself, he thinks, making a damn _point_. He removes his hat and waits so the SA thugs loitering near-by can see just how damn Aryan he looks, then puts his hand to the door.

"Hey, you!" one of them calls. "Don't you know there's a boycott?"

Schuldig turns to him, already smiling.

After, Gruen buys him a coffee, shaking his head over Schuldig's battered knuckles.

"I thought you weren't political?" he says.

Schuldig shrugs. "Too many bad experiences with Austrians already," he says dryly.

 

* * *

 

_10\. Mai_

 

It is, in Schuldig's estimation, already too hot to start building bonfires. He stands in Opernplatz, letting his mind drift across the crowd, feeling their prurient curiosity, their fear, their pathetic, _stupid_ joy at freeing their country from such un-German ideas. His eyes snap open. _No_ , he thinks, _be calm. Accept what comes to you, don't waste energy on judging it, use it instead._

His training does no good. The rage rising within him is all his own as he watches whole libraries consigned to the flames.

 _Not even in Rosenkreuz_ , he thinks, bitter _they_ were in any way _better._

 

* * *

 

_20\. Juli_

Schuldig reads the letter again. _Leave_ , it says. _There is work for you in London_.

"I can't," Schuldig says, as if Crawford were before him.

 _By the 20th, Eszett's man will gather powerful allies_ , Crawford's letter informs him.

"I know," Schuldig says, rolling his eyes. "I burnt the Reichstag Building; blaming the Communists helped to set off this new alliance." He sighs. "I need to make amends. I'm turning political, it seems. Or religious. God forbid." He reads the letter again. It doesn't say _friend_ anywhere.

He'll see the year out in Berlin. How bad can it get, after all?

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: 
> 
>  
> 
> [30th January](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler#Appointment_as_Chancellor)
> 
>  
> 
> [27th February](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire)
> 
>  
> 
> [23rd March](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933) \- _[the last](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_am_Hohenzollernplatz#Church_and_architect) [few days](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp)_
> 
>  
> 
> [1st April](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_boycott_of_Jewish_businesses)
> 
>  
> 
> [10th May](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning#Jewish.2C_anti-Nazi_and_.22degenerate.22_books_.28by_the_Nazis.29)
> 
>  
> 
> [20th July](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskonkordat)


End file.
